I Accidentally Too Much Gold [3.5/Pathfinder]

[alchemyprime]

Well, I made an encounter for my players, and since I figured it'd be cool, I made the fight against some Ashteri, with a lot of sand diving and it kind of came out like fighting monsters in a video game. Everyone had fun.

Then they all decided to sell the weapons the Ashteri had on them because I didn't cheap out and say stuff was monster abilities. Sure, I could have, but I didn't think about it.

Cue the party selling four +1 Desiccating Khopeshes and 3 +1 Adamantine Breastplates.

And each member getting 21,000+ gold.

Now, some of it wasn't so bad. The artificer just upgraded their tin golem, who was a great help until he hit himself, and the monk and scout each bought a bag of holding and a bunch of mundane equipment.

But was a little over 21,000 gold each too much to give to a party of 6-7 level adventurers?

[ffone]

It's more than L7 WBL so yeah, but oh well.

My sol'n: just go light on treasure for the next while, and their XP will catch up to their GP. Considering giving slightly higher-CR battles: this will both 'compensate' for the party's enhanced power, and give them more XP per battle (if you use the CR-based formulae), catching up faster.

Another thing you can do in the future, in between the 'gave them too much' and 'they sold it' steps, is declare 'this town doesn't have the resources to liquidate all that stuff for you' (the merchants don't have enough gp, or don't think they could find buyers) so they have to wait to actually liquidate the stuff. Or the merchants will only give below market sell values (encouraging the PCs to delay), or will buy the stuff....but have no useful stuff for the PCs to buy.

[drakir_nosslin]

I don't remember how much a lvl 7 adventurer is supposed to own but it's not sure that this is a problem. It depends what the players can buy with their gold. If there's a magic mart around the corner, then you might have a problem, depending on how smart they are, but you should remember that you have all the right to say
"Nope, you can't find exactly that item there"
Also, this can be a great way to start a new plot twist. As the players start spending their coin, more than what they should have, they attract unwanted attention from other groups and now they have to fend off mercenaries and thieves for the rest of the campaign.
Or, if the players know that it's a bit more than what they usually get, have someone steal it from them, make them hunt the thieves and use that to get them into the next adventure. So that when they've earned their money back they are the proper level for it.

[Knaight]

Now, some of it wasn't so bad. The artificer just upgraded their tin golem, who was a great help until he hit himself, and the monk and scout each bought a bag of holding and a bunch of mundane equipment.

But was a little over 21,000 gold each too much to give to a party of 6-7 level adventurers?

You answered your own question. Its clearly fine, WBL can be ignored as it seems like the players aren't the type who would abuse discrepancies in WBL and level.

[Shpadoinkle]

If you really think it's really going to be a problem, you can send them up against monsters that don't use equipment or collect money for a session or two, until they gain a level and they're back around where their WBL is expected to be.

[alchemyprime]

You answered your own question. Its clearly fine, WBL can be ignored as it seems like the players aren't the type who would abuse discrepancies in WBL and level.

I kind of figure he's got the right idea. They know won't allow the weirder stuff, and they know they're outside of Van Kyr (the capital city of this region), so the only "expensive" things they can find until they get through the gauntlet I have set up for them is guns and level 5 and lower items.

So yeah, I guess it's nothing to worry about with my players. Considering we weed out the munchkins. :smalltongue:

[Scarlet-Devil]

Either lay low treasure-wise for a little while until it balances out, or call in the bandits if it's actually problematic :smalltongue:.

Edit: NM, already been answered better. :smallsigh:

[2xMachina]

I think they deserve the gold. They didn't steal it, or pried out the adamantine door that wasn't supposed to be looted. They won against opponents wielding those items. It's earned fair and square.

If they get strong items... Worse come to worse, they're stronger, so you throw stronger opponents at them.

[The White Knight]

If they get strong items... Worse come to worse, they're stronger, so you throw stronger opponents at them.

That kind of rocket tag gets hard to handle after a certain point. My earlier games always tended to degenerate in this fashion, to the point where I'm almost paranoid of giving my group nice things anymore.

OP, I envy you for your players and the way they spend their resources on helpful, but not necessarily potent, things.

[2xMachina]

What do your players buy anyway? For me, I'll probably nab more +Stats, or better weapon/armor. +1 or 2 AC,To hit, damage, DC ain't gonna kill a game.

[Glimbur]

An alternate idea is to give them something else to spend the money on. They could stumble across a ruined village which could be theirs if they rebuild it. Orphanages are classic money sinks. They could buy shares in a caravan and then escort it. There are two problems with this idea: either the players might not care and so it doesn't work, or they care too much and then do not spend enough cash on themselves.

[Coidzor]

Orphanages are classic money sinks.

If you want to look like you're guilt-tripping the players to forgive you for a mistake. :smallyuk:



More minor items to pad their capabilities is not a bad thing, especially since some purchases are worth their gp and others decidedly are not.

[Fouredged Sword]

Encourage consumables like potions and scrolls. They give a quick boost to power then go away with few longterm problems to WBL. Have the next few encounters rewarded with stuff that they can and will uses as a potion/scroll.

And you already have an artificer, kiss WBL goodbye before to long.

[Necroticplague]

When stuff like this happens, I usually give the enemies they face the same amount of equipment, just equipment they can't use or sell. For example, have them go against creatures that use magical equipment that only their race can use (and have the race be one that the party doesn't have, and the type noone would trade with). Personal favorite of mine is to start replacing normal equipment with grafts. It got so bad that eventually my players started ripping off ony limb, tongue, wing, eye, hand,peice of skin, tooth, or blood described in any amount of detail. They deserved it though (they had been using psychocreativity to completely ignore WBL).

[Psyren]

"You accidentally what?"

(Can't believe it took this long)

[Coidzor]

"You accidentally what?"


The whole party! :smallbiggrin:

[Kaldrin]

Magic items aren't generally available except for commission in any game I run, and even then you have to wait for it to be made. As a result having a lot of money doesn't break the game.

What they do with lots of money can be interesting though. I've had players decide to build a chain of inns across an entire kingdom, all around the distance a horse can travel in a day.

[Callista]

LOL

yeah, just go light on treasure for a while. It isn't hugely over the guidelines, so it shouldn't create really big problems. But do explain to your players that you messed up on the gold and they should expect less treasure until things catch up.

A party that's overequipped for their level will still have lower saves, lower HP, etc., and if you want to challenge them by bringing in more powerful monsters, then that ratchets up the danger level quite a bit. So you're quite wise to want to make sure their wealth level stays decent.

[claricorp]

I did a similar thing in my campaign and gave a group of about 9th level a massive ton of gold and items. Realizing my stupid mistake I needed a plan to cut down upon there stuff. So I promptly started a story where a group of thieves go into the inn where the party is sleeping and steal a large amount of there stuff, several of them awoke and had a decent encounter, able to get back some of there more important items(like the wizards spellbook a few decently powerful weapons and such and a good deal of the gold)

They go into town the next day searching for clues about the thieves and getting some replacement gear. The ranger learns the thieves came from a mountain which the BBEG is linked to. So the party is off to the mountain

Of course thats the simple version of it, but what i did was lower the amount of gear/gold they had, linked it to the plot and have given them time to rise up a level or two as they climb up the mountain and eventually get there stuff(and a little more) back.

[rayne_dragon]

I've never cared much for WBL. As DM you hand rewards you think are appropriate and if your players are clever enough to take advantage of something so that they get more money out of it than you had expected... well all the more power to them. PCs can loose, use up, or waste items too, so hopefully it all balances out for the sake of everyone having fun. Plus I think it is more important to emphasize that it is the characters themselves who make them great heroes (or villains), not their equipment.

[Psyren]

The whole party! :smallbiggrin:

THANK you.

(You may return to your regularly scheduled thread)

[Skaven]

Wealth by level is only a rough guideline.

It entirely depends on how your party are doing. Worse players or a non optimised party might need more than min-maxers who work well as a team.

[Callista]

Yup, that's true; you can adjust their wealth level. But having it too far out of balance is still a bad thing. Some classes depend more on equipment than others and you'll end up swinging it in favor of one group or the other if it's not kept balanced.

[Arbitrarity]

An alternate idea is to give them something else to spend the money on. They could stumble across a ruined village which could be theirs if they rebuild it. Orphanages are classic money sinks. They could buy shares in a caravan and then escort it. There are two problems with this idea: either the players might not care and so it doesn't work, or they care too much and then do not spend enough cash on themselves.

Expanding on this, money sinks can be investments that return the money over time. I.e. as the players level.
This both adds an interesting roleplaying element, an explanation for extra gold/buying capability for the players, and allows you to spread out how they get the wealth, as they level. Investing in a caravan/business or similar works very well, and lets you give appropriate rewards and treasure easily. It also has the side effect of potentially allowing for rarer purchases to be justified.

[Otherworld Odd]

It's not so bad. My current GM gave our group so much magical items and gold that we wound up with roughly 50-70k worth of loot over what we were supposed to have. Not to mention the bonus feats he gave everybody and the fact that he advanced our level so fast that we were level 7 when we were supposed to be level 4. This was remedied by him of course, taking away all of our items and making us buy more stuff with a pre-determined gold count suitable to our level... which is still a lot considering we're seventh level when we're supposed to be fourth.


Oh, and he gave us all legacy weapons.

Later when we confronted him about this (It not being fun on our part, we killed everything in the surprise round.) He had to make a level 10 Gestalt boss to replace the boss in the campaign just to give us a slight challenge and we still trampled him. Anyways, we found out it's because he likes "high powered campaigns" and didn't consider what we wanted. -.-

[Amador]

I've found that giving the [players more than WBL is a decent way of equalizing the tier problem. Monks can be pretty impressive in combat with the right equipment. And Wizards don't usually have the action economy in their favor with more items, just avoid metamagic rods like the plague.

[Arbitrarity]

I've found that giving the [players more than WBL is a decent way of equalizing the tier problem. Monks can be pretty impressive in combat with the right equipment. And Wizards don't usually have the action economy in their favor with more items, just avoid metamagic rods like the plague.

*coughBeltOfBattlecough*

[2xMachina]

Even then... Arguably, Belt of Battle is better for Melees. After all, they could use Move actions, or Full Round actions.

Spellcasters will just spam Standard actions, so they will waste 1 charge per belt. Whereas, for melee, even a move action for them means a full attack on first round. Full round is a full attack.